Ya jalikurtijuyi! We appear to run the gamut this week from
Keaton and other silents to Hammer Horror and modern thrillers
on Blu-ray - plus up to a dozen film noir on DVD.........
We offer plenty of new calendar updates including orderable
September Criterions, a
new contest with a brand new Criterion DVD
prize... "What if..."!

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ONE VOICE(not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): As
far as
Blu-ray go this week - I had a ball with Hammer
Studios Paranoiac - put out by
Eureka in a region FREE 1080P transfer. Let's hope for many
more - especially at this reasonable price. Despite Keaton's
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
looking a shade 'lighter' than anticipated - it was a
hilarious viewing experience - worthy of initiating any film
night. The remake of Assault on Precinct 13
may not be for all tastes but I admit to getting swept up in
the action. It reminded me of Walter Hill's work. Okay -
onto DVD and plenty of Film Noir! Yes, there are no
in-depth extras on Warner's 8-feature Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5
BUT we are talking less than $5/movie and these are GREAT
flics! It's an incredibly valuable package. A must-own.
Don't hesitate. Okay shut-up Gary. Extras are not in the
cards for niche DVD these days - are they? but that won't
stop me extolling Olive films tri-fecta of, previously
unreleased Noir classics - Heston's feature debut in
Dark City, Alan Ladd's
last dark cinema labeled work; Appointment With Danger,
and Rudolph Maté's forgotten Union Station. Each is
dual layered with strong transfers. Gregory visits some past
released, noirish, Storm Warning(where
the stars shine), the highly debatable Monkey on My Back and
the woman-centered noir Crime of Passion. You
sometimes must separate the noir gold viewings with
something totally... different. The sci-fi, apocalyptic
love-triangle in Crack in the World does
the job.
Hannie Caulder has a less
revealing Raquel Welch in western garb but keeping in the
crime-drama mold we can give an encouraging thumbs up to
Italian The Girl by the Lake -
an excellent mystery. Belmondo is Belmondo in
quasi-politico Le Professionnel - an
imperfect release but the best available to date - this is
also a very strong film! Leonard revisits both Cronenberg's
The Fly and the Director's Cut of Troy
- both in
Blu-ray. I shouldn't leave this till last because I
enjoyed it very much - Chicago: the Original 1927 Film
has a very cool edge - great characters and edgy story. It's
all good. Enjoy!

THIS WEEK's REVIEWS / COMPARISONS

Assault on Precinct 13BD - There are some places
where you don't want to be trapped, and Detroit's 13th Precinct
on New Year's Eve is one of them. Initially, there are only four
people there - a group too thin to be labeled as a "skeleton
crew." The precinct only has a few hours of life left. At
midnight, it's due to be closed down to make way for the spiffy
new 21st. Outside, a major snowstorm rages. Inside, Sgt. Jake
Roenick (Ethan Hawke); his retiring buddy, Jasper O'Shea (Brian
Dennehy); the precinct's horny secretary, Iris (Drea de Matteo);
and Jake's shrink, Dr. Alex Sabian (Maria Bello), are preparing
to watch Dick Clark ring in 2005.
Blu-ray Release date: July 13th, 2010

Hannie Caulder - The wild
west gets wilder when Raquel Welch (Fantastic Voyage) saddles up
in HANNIE CAULDER, a sagebrush saga that combines hard-hitting
action with the rowdiness of three of the most wicked villains
ever to ride the lone prairie, played by Ernest Borgnine (The
Wild Bunch), Jack Elam (Support Your Local Sheriff) Strother
Martin (Cool Hand Luke). Welch is Hannie, a woman sworn to
vengeance after she’s raped and widowed. At first, she has more
heart than know-how, but once a bounty hunter (Robert Culp)
arrives in town, he teaches her how to use a gun. Hannie straps
on her .45 and sets out to put a few notches in its handle.
DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010

Crack in the World - This
DVD from Paramount/Olive Films marks the Region 1 debut of Crack
in the World (1965), made by expatriate American producer Philip Yordan in follow-up to Day of the Triffids (1962). A corking
piece of speculative 60s science fiction, the project began with
an original script by British writer Jon Manchip White.
Recalling the apocalyptic excesses of the sci-fi classic When
Worlds Collide (1950), the property was rewritten by Julian
Halvey when Yordan secured the services of special effects
pioneer (and occasional film director) Eugène Lourié to act as
production designer and director of special effects. DVD
Release Date: July 27th, 2010

Dark City - After losing
his company’s $5,000 cashier’s check in a crooked card game, a
stranger in Chicago commits suicide. The group of gamblers, with
Danny Haley (Charlton Heston) as a member, worries about the
dangers of cashing the check, but this becomes the least of
their worries when the head of the group is found hanged. Police
Captain Garvey (Dean Jagger) concludes the hanging to be a case
of homicide and discovers that the stranger had a mentally
deranged brother who is out to avenge his brother’s death. Fran
(Lizabeth Scott), a torch singer desperately in love with Danny,
begs him to runaway with her. This classic film noir also
features the stars of Dragnet, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, as
Danny’s gambling partners. DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010

Appointment With Danger -
Postal Inspector Al Goddard (Alan Ladd) is assigned to
investigate the murder of a fellow officer. The only witness to
the crime is Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert), who identifies
the photograph of one of the assailants. This leads Goddard to a
seedy hotel where he learns that the assailant is a member of a
gang headed by Earl Boettiger (Paul Stewart), and he soon
discovers that the gang is planning a million dollar mail
robbery. This classic film noir also features the stars of
Dragnet, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, as Stewart’s Henchmen. This
was Alan Ladd’s final Film Noir and was directed by Lewis Allen
(The Uninvited). DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010

Union Station - Returning
to the city from her wealthy employer residence, Joyce
Willecombe (Nancy Olson), spots two armed men on the train. She
reports them to the conductor who radios in to the Station’s
police. Once at Union station she points out the men to Lt.
William Calhoun (William Holden), head of the station’s police
squad and they find out that the gunmen are members of a gang
who have kidnapped her employer’s blind daughter and are seeking
a $100,000 ransom. The Chicago police headed by inspector
Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald), and the FBI are both called in. The
action in this classic Film Noir culminates in a chase through
the station’s underground tunnels. Directed by Rudolph Maté (D.O.A.).
DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010

Le Professionnel - French
secret agent Joss Baumont (Belmondo) has been assigned the
treacherous task of killing an African president; but, in a
series of drastic political changes, the mission is negated. The
tables turn on Baumont, as those who assigned him turn him in to
the African authorities. Sentenced to long-term imprisonment,
Baumont makes a daring escape with the intention of fulfilling
the Secret Service’s murderous request as a reprisal and setting
up a thrilling showdown. DVD Release Date: July 20th, 2010

The Girl by the Lake - It
swept Italy's Academy Awards, won the Venice Film Festival s top
acting prize for star Toni Servillo (IL DIVO, GOMORRA) and
remains one of the most acclaimed mystery thrillers in years:
When a beautiful young girl is found murdered in an idyllic
Northern Italy village, Inspector Giovanni Sanzio (Servillo) is
called in from the capital to investigate. But in a small town
where nobody is what they seem, anyone could be capable of
homicide and everyone may be hiding a dark secret...including
Inspector Sanzio. Valeria Golino (FRIDA), Fabrizio Gifuni (THE
BEST OF YOUTH) and Omero Antonutti (PADRE PADRONE) co-star in
this startling drama the breakthrough debut from
co-writer/director Andrea Molaioli based on the bestselling
Inspector Sejer novel Don t Look Back by Karin Fossum. DVD
Release Date: July 13th, 2010

ParanoiacBD - A forgotten gem from the
legendary Hammer Studios, available for the first time on home
video in the UK, this sinister classic spins a gruesome web of
unhappy families. It is three weeks before the Ashby siblings
Simon (Oliver Reed), a brutish alcoholic, and Eleanor (Janette
Scott), a nervous wreck, are to come into their late parents'
inheritance. While Simon plans to have his sister certified
insane and locked away, Eleanor keeps seeing the lurking figure
of their long-dead brother Tony around the estate. Who or what
is this apparition, and does he threaten to reveal skeletons in
the closet (and elsewhere)? A massively entertaining horror
treat in the best English Gothic tradition, Paranoiac features a
superbly oily lead performance from a young Oliver Reed,
stunning black & white Cinemascope photography, an ingenious
script by Jimmy Sangster, and gripping direction by the great
Freddie Francis. Blu-ray Release
date: July 26th, 2010

Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5
- Out of the vaults and into the light: a fascinating 4-Disc Set
showcasing 8 genre gems rich with the intensity and diversity of
noir! Disc 1 wreaks revenge, with Dick Powell on the hunt in
Cornered and Steve Brodie on the lam in Desperate.
Caught-in-the-act immediacy highlights Disc 2’s corruption
exposé The Phenix City Story and the hostage drama Dial 1119.
Disc 3 turns procedural with noir ace Charles McGraw bulldogging
the perps of an Armored Car Robbery then turns to
social-conscience filmmaking with Crime in the Streets (John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo star). An unfatale femme is rare in
noir but invaluable when strong dames help their men out of
jams, as do Disc 4’s Susan Hayward in Deadline at Dawn and
Virginia Mayo in Backfire. Step into the shadows and suspense.
DVD Release Date: July 13th, 2010

Fighting Delinquents - When
a drunk-driving gangster accidentally kills the owner of a
billboard company with his car, the old man's daughter and his
staff (all orphaned young men) balk at the modest compensation
offered up by his lawyer. Sadao (singer Koji Wada) confronts the
man and ends up with his picture in the paper for smashing up
the man's office. The picture catches the eye of an attorney who
has been searching for the lost heir to the Matsudaira clan of
Awaji island (which, coincidentally, the Yakuza man has plans to
develop into the "Monaco of Japan"). Sadao and his orphaned
buddies show attempt to prevent his aged grandmother from being
shaken down by the gangster, his goons, and his lawyers. DVD
Release Date: March 26th, 2007

Cry 'Havoc' - The
priorities are clear for Army nurses on Bataan Peninsula in
1942. Take your quinine, malaria is rampant. Make do, supplies
will not arrive. Stay strong, despite the overwhelming odds. The
nation was shaken by the plight of U.S. and Filipino forces in
the early days of America's World War II involvement, and
Hollywood responded with three powerful 1943 films about that
conflict: Bataan, So Proudly We Hail! and Cry "Havoc," a tale of
courage and camaraderie featuring an all-female credited cast.
Margaret Sullavan portrays the overworked head nurse guiding an
inexperienced staff of civilian volunteers: a burlesque queen
(Joan Blondell) , a waitress (Ann Sothern), a Southern belle, a
socialite and more - all heroes. DVD Release Date: January
19th, 2010

Steamboat Bill, Jr.BD - The last of the
independent features made in the prime of Buster Keaton's
career, STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. is a large-scale follow-up to The
General, substituting a Mississippi paddlewheel for the
locomotive, and replacing the spectacle of the Civil War with a
catastrophic hurricane. Keaton stars as William Canfield, Jr., a
Boston collegian who returns to his deep-southern roots to
reunite with his father, a crusty riverboat captain (Ernest Torrence) who is engaged in a bitter rivalry with a riverboat
king coincidentally, the father of Willie s sweetheart (Marion
Byron). Keaton s athleticism and gift for inventive visual humor
are in top form, and the cyclone that devastates a town (and
sends houses literally crashing down around him) is perhaps the
most ambitious, awe-inspiring and hilarious slapstick sequence
ever created. Blu-ray Release
date: July 6th, 2010

The FlyBD - Science journalist,
Veronica Quaife, meets Seth Brundle at a science convention.
Brundle promises her to show her something that will "change the
world and human life as we know it." Later that night at his
laboratory/loft, he delivers. Veronica wants to tell the world –
not, thank God, because the public has a right to know – but
because she is genuinely excited about his breakthrough: Seth
has been able to electrically teleport an object across the
room. He persuades her to put off publishing until he feels
finished, until he can do with the animate what he is able to do
with the inanimate, while she gets to document the adventure.
It's an intimate association that leads to insight, invention
and tragedy. By accident, a fly is in the telepod when Seth puts
himself through and the two bond at the molecular level. The
results have been made famous in a number of venues, but none so
desperate as in Cronenberg's film.
Blu-ray Release date: October 9th, 2007

Troy (Director's Cut)BD - Just as Agamemnon subdues
the last of the Grecian kingdoms, his brother, Manelaus, king of
Sparta, implores him to attack Troy to wrest his wife, Helen,
from the clutches of the youth, Paris, who has stolen her from
under his very house. Agamemnon's thirst for dominion is thereby
kick-started by Paris's brazen act, since undefeated Troy, which
lies across the sea, has always been outside of his grasp. Now
he has the excuse to rally all his armies to an attack. But for
his plan to succeed he requires the aid of Achilles and his
Myrmidons. Achilles, Agamemnon is always quick to point out,
fights for no king save his own heroic destiny, and so he
enlists the aid of Odysseus to persuade Achilles. Blu-ray Release date: September
18th, 2007

Storm Warning - Somewhere
during preproduction the top dogs at Warner Bros. lost their
nerve, and Storm Warning’s script was declawed and defanged.
Even its bark is oddly meek. The studio congratulated itself in
its advertising for making a film “as startling as the screen
has dared to be,” but for a purported exposé of the Ku Klux Klan
the film is as hard-hitting as 40 lashes with a wet noodle. To
“take on” the Klan and then omit any mention of its racism or
religious bigotry—presenting instead cracker Fascists as
garden-variety goons keeping their town clean of “Northern”
influence—smacks of cowardice. Especially compared to another
film made across town at virtually the same time, Fox’s No Way
Out (1950), an unflinching take on racism that reaches far
beyond the Mason-Dixon Line. DVD Release Date: August 15,
2006

Crime of Passion - Crime of
Passion is an amazingly bold film for its time. Not only does
the plot effectively eviscerate the American Dream, but it also
laces the drama with two contrasting visions of female
relationships. On one hand, there are the wives of the police
department--giddy, silly, bitchy vacuous women who seem bred for
lives of conspicuous consumption (note the lengthy manicure
session Kathy has with Alice Pope), and then there are ‘other’
women--the hard-edged kind who struggle and fight their way in
the male-dominated workplace: Kathy, the female justice of the
peace, and two female cab drivers, for example. DVD Release
Date: December 2nd, 2003

Chicago: the Original 1927 Film
- Like the musical Chicago that won the Best Picture Academy
Award and five other Oscars in 2002, this original 1927 version
descends from a 1926 hit Broadway play by Maurine Watkins. It’s
a terrifically entertaining mix of humor and melodrama as well
as a pungent critique of trash journalism. Frank Urson signed
Chicago as director, although it is substantially the work of
Cecil B. DeMille and his A-list technical staff. (DeMille
apparently judged it unseemly to take full credit for this
cynical and secular story while his religious spectacle The King
of Kings was still in theatres!) Chicago is silent filmmaking at
its peak, with an outstanding score for this edition by the Mont
Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. The 1927 Chicago was long
believed a lost film, but a perfect print survived in Cecil B. DeMille’s private collection. Restored by the UCLA Film and
Television Archive in 2006, it has since been widely performed
to rapturous audiences. DVD Release Date: July 6th, 2010

The Grissom Gang - Robert
Aldrich's Bonnie & Clyde-style rural gangster epic tells the
story of the Ma Barker gang from a different angle and comes up
as one of his less exciting movies. The performances are all
good but the film lacks a sense of humor or other hook to keep
us interested for its unusually long running time. Kim Darby and
Scott Wilson's star-crossed 'romance' is doomed from the outset,
so there's little fun to be had on the way. And Aldrich's
hard-slugging style often overpowers the material. DVD
Release Date: November 2nd, 2004

Monkey on My Back - UNITED
ARTISTS' involvements with narcotics addiction films and the
concomitant disapproval of the Production Code people have yet
to result in any startlingly dramatic revelations. It will be
recalled that in December, 1955, the company defiantly released
without a Production Code seal Otto Preminger's "The Man With
the Golden Arm," starring Frank Sinatra as the harrowed "junkie"
of the title. There was no record of any major dislocation of
the nation's cultural habits following its appearance on our
screens. DVD Release Date: February 8th, 2005

King Frat / Cheering Section
- Hearse-driving Pi Kappa Delta is the rowdiest and crudest
fraternity at Yellowstream University (so named after the
dispossessed local Native American tribe's reaction to being
banished upstream). On their first day back on campus, they moon
the university's present to death. His replacement is a former
prison warden who plans to straighten out the students and
faculty (although it is mentioned that his similar plan with the
prison resulted in it being burned to the ground). Pi Kappa
Delta drink (and drink) and fart their way through the rest of
the film's loose series of vignettes under the uninspired
direction of poor Ken Weiderhorn has done much better than this
ANIMAL HOUSE cash-in (SHOCK WAVES is a minor horror masterpiece
and EYES OF A STRANGER was an okay Hitchcockian hommage - with
Tom Savini gore - by the producers of FRIDAY THE 13TH). DVD
Release Date: October 6th, 2009